Guided Reading

Guided reading involves the teacher providing students with scaffolding support as they read to development their reading and fluency skills. Instruction during guided reading generally should focus on students' use of specific reading strategies to enhance their ability to choose and apply a variety of reading strategies when they read independently.

According to Parker and Reutzel in But I Only Have Basal: Implementing Guided Reading in the Early Grades, guided readings typically progress through three steps:

1. The teacher introduces the story to help develop the students'  background knowledge.
2. The students are involved in a supported reading activity where the teacher introduces the story or part of a story, then the students quietly read aloud the identified text. During this step, the teacher observes as her students apply the strategies they know; as needed, she/he can provide support to help struggling students apply the appropriate reading strategies.
3. Once the story is complete, students are asked to follow up with an activity for extension of either the story or a new strategy learned while reading the story.

The overall goal of guided reading is to encourage and help develop children to become independent and fluent readers.

Here is a brief video that demonstrates how a guided reading in small groups might look: